Tuesday, 22 April 2014

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #174 Use Green Paint

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #174 Use Green Paint

This Flower was so much harder than I
expected it to be. In the past I’ve heard of environmentally friendly paint and
thought it was a straight-forward exercise to use a ‘green’ paint. However,
there are a great many shades of green. So what is the problem with the paints
we’ve been using? They can ‘off gas’ fumes for up to twelve months, and these
fumes may cause health issues, such as breathing problems, asthma and
allergies. These VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) are the main concern in
house paints, but when paints are declared completely VOC free that’s not quite
the whole story. Measuring standards for how much VOC is in paint varies from
one country to another, where some claims that the paint is completely free of
VOC actually means the amount is quite small and well below the set standard.
Added into the mix of problems is that the base colour may be low VOC or VOC
free, but the pigment that is added to achieve that perfect colour you’re after
may contain high levels of VOC. It’s all quite complex. A good site to read
more is at www.greenpainters.org.au

Using a paint that contains as few
chemicals as possible seems to be the way to go. But we must also consider
sustainability. Standard paints are oil based which means they use a
non-renewable resource and the production process creates a lot of toxic waste
that is not biodegradable. Green paints use plant and mineral bases which are
renewable resources, and have low VOC levels. So choosing paint because it’s
manufactured from renewable resources may be the best way we can decorate our
homes at this time.

Further considerations you may like to
make are where the paint was manufactured, how many miles it has travelled to
reach the end user (i.e. overseas or local manufacturer), how responsible has
the manufacturer been in regards to waste and how will you dispose of unused
product.

You will need to do some research
before choosing the best paint for your circumstances. At this point in time,
that’s the best we can do.

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About Me

I am a writer, emerging artist, quiltmaker and public speaker. My current art installation is a work in progress, titled "1000 Flowers for the Planet". Every day, for 1000 days, I will blog one flower with a positive suggestion for how we can improve the planet - environmental, social, moral and ethical ideas. Please join me on this journey, send me your ideas for further suggestions and feel free to comment. If everyone took up only 1% of the ideas (i.e. 10 new actions), imagine the shift in the world!!
www.margaretrowe.com.au